


Hey girl, you'll drive me to ruin!

by kotekru



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst with a Happy Ending, Developing Relationship, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, Miscommunication, Mission Fic, Pining, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:07:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25047385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kotekru/pseuds/kotekru
Summary: Nyota and T’Pring are chosen for a covert operation on a starbase ran by criminals. Their mission: to gather intel on a kidnapping ring. Will the mission succeed? How will they go on once the dust settles? How will their already precarious relationship fare in turmoil?
Relationships: T'Pring/Nyota Uhura
Kudos: 11





	1. I don't know what it is that I like about you

**Author's Note:**

> Hello beautiful reader!  
> Welcome to a story of action and adventure, spiced with longing, pining, and a sprinkle of miscommunication. I’m sorry I keep writing angst, but that’s the spice of life! This was going to be a short one-shot, but it turned into this? Idk what happened...  
> For Vulcan translations, and possible triggers see the end notes.  
> Title from Led Zeppelin - Communication breakdown  
> Hope you enjoy <3

The situation was dire, more than a hundred Vulcans have gone missing from the alpha quadrant in the last three months. With them being an endangered species even one person is a tragedy, but the steadily growing number was disconcerting. Section 31 has traced the disappearances to the Orion syndicate, but they have no idea how they are targeted or taken. Spock seems even more tense than usual as he relates the information.

At their wits end the agency’s last lead is an information broker at the edge of the quadrant who operates out of a space station that has been overrun with criminals. Their task is to infiltrate the criminal network and find out what the information broker knows. Uhura and T’Pring are tasked with the mission. With Nyota’s language skills and knowledge of computer hardware and T’Pring’s insane affinity for programming, they would make a great team.

For Nyota T’Pring is still an enigma, she joined the crew when the new Enterprise was being rebuilt at Yorktown base. Spock introduced them that first day.

“Lieutenant Uhura, this is Lieutenant T’Pring, she is our new information specialist. You will likely work together on several projects.” He said, gesturing to the severe-looking woman next to him.

Nyota politely raised her hand in the ta’al and extended her greeting in fluent Vulcan, “Dif-tor heh smusma.”

“Sochya eh dif, ot-lan Uhura.” T’Pring responded with her own hand raised in greeting. She was the most stunning person Nyota has ever seen and she made it her mission to get to know T’Pring.

They worked together for two months, and in the end, the new communications programming was state of the art, and the universal translator was updated with new syntax recognition programming that they wrote together.

Nyota was incredibly proud of what they achieved. They worked so well together, that it was a shame that it would come to an end. Or at least Nyota thought it would, as she later learned, T’Pring would stay with them for the rest of their 5-year mission. She joined the science department and put her immense programming skills to the task of updating the intra- and intership communications systems as well as the logging system.

During the months they worked closely together Uhura tried to get to know the other woman, she persisted in asking her all kinds of questions and even though T’Pring rarely ever responded, she kept doing it. She also invited her out every time she could.

For a coffee “Vulcans don’t indulge in caffeinated beverages as it has negligible nutritional value and no physiological effects.”, then for tea “I have no need of electrolyte intake at the moment.” Join me for lunch in the mess “I have already consumed the recommended amount of calories for this time of day.”

At every turn, she was rebuffed, but Nyota kept asking her. Maybe it was foolish, maybe she should have taken the clear ‘no’ that T’Pring conveyed to her, but she asked her to join her for something every day until their common projects were finished. It became a sort of game, a challenge, so when she no longer had an excuse to see T’Pring and pester her with propositions Nyota was a little dejected. She missed annoying T’Pring (in a friendly way of course).

But back to the meeting at hand, they have proven to be an effective team so this should be a piece of cake.

They were given their new credentials, Nyota would be Sarah Connor, disgraced star fleet officer, trading section 31 intel, while T’Pring will be T’Dani Ram-os a V’tosh ka’tur scientist who left New Vulcan wishing to find a place where she could carry out her near-unethical experiments in peace. They met years ago and have since been working together. They were given a small, warp-capable ship, and equipment necessary for their mission. There was a box with all kinds of tools in the back. Their phasers were hanging on a hook next to the door. Fully equipped medkit under the bed.

It would be interesting to share such a small space with the other woman if she decided to not engage with her again. Nyota could just imagine the uncomfortable silence every night, the loneliness. She really hoped that it wouldn’t be like that, but she wouldn’t get her hopes up.

Then it was off to get dressed and get rid of anything that could tie them to Starfleet. Finally, Nyota looked in the mirror, the leather jacket seemed a little much, and she got used to wearing dresses all the time, so the pants felt strange, but it was convincing. She looked like every stereotypical bad guy/criminal ever.

She met T’Pring in the hangar bay and was surprised to see her wear something very similar, her hair usually in a tight and elaborate bun was now hanging loose around her shoulders, for a second Nyota was stunned breathless. T’Pring looked incredible in her tight leggings and flowy burgundy robe. Good enough to eat, she thought, and then shook herself. They were here to do a job, not ogle each other.

They settled into the sleeping alcove, put their equipment away, hid the computer in a locked crate and were ready to leave.

It was a short 2-hour flight to Starbase 95, they spent it mostly quiet, only speaking when they needed to relate some information pertinent to their travel.

They arrived at the starbase and after docking immediately went to the nearest bar. It took a lot of silent Vulcan resistance and immeasurable patience and relentlessness on the part of Nyota to convince T’Pring to come along. They needed to establish themselves on the starbase, befriend people, trade information and generally blend in, and Nyota couldn’t do that alone.

When the entered the first bar they could find Nyota went to the bar and ordered two Cardassian sunrises. When she got them, she pushed one in front of T’Pring who silently sat next to her. She looked affronted, but with a quick glance around T’Pring accepted the drink and started slowly sipping it.

They weren’t in the bar for five minutes before some sleazy bastard tried to hit on them, and he wouldn’t take a hint either. In the end, he pushed Nyota so much that she decided this would be an excellent opportunity to establish her reputation. She drew back and punched the man in the nose.

After that it was chaos, apparently, the man had friends, so the whole thing turned into a brawl. Nyota was throwing punches and she was almost having fun, all that time spent sparring with Sulu and Kirk she picked up a few dirty tricks. In the end, though there were just too many people to fight, and T’Pring made the logical choice and dragged her away from the foray.

Nyota was still high on adrenaline when they got back to the ship. T’Pring pushed her down into one of the chairs and started tending to her injuries.

“This endeavor was foolish; you could have been grievously injured.” She said in her monotone voice.

“This endeavor was ingenious, now everyone knows not to mess with us!” Nyota countered excited, adrenalin still rushing through her. “And we would have won if you helped.” She added with a small frown.

“I must remind you that Vulcans are pacifists.”

“You are supposed to be V’tosh ka’tur...”

T’Pring didn’t answer, just ran the dermal regenerator over Nyota’s split lip.

They didn’t speak for the rest of the night, going to sleep in their separate beds, facing away from each other, the icy atmosphere and the adrenalin finally leaving her body left Nyota slightly shaking.

++++

Nyota took most of the next day to scope out the bars on the station. There were a lot of bars, but only some operated all day round, she would stick with these. Then she looked at the menu for each, most catered to only specific species or groups, so she eliminated them. Out of the remaining bars many had either very few patrons or were too expensive, that left her with 3 bars.

The next days Nyota went to each of them, looked around, got to know the bartenders, pretended to get wasted and shouted over the music about her supposed exploits. By the fourth day she had her first buyer. Easy.

The rest of the week went by quickly, Nyota soon became well known across the station as someone who shouldn’t be messed with. She also became popular because of the data packets she was selling.

T’Pring, on the other hand, spent most of her time on the ship, doing god knows what. Nyota was becoming annoyed, they were here to do a job, and that job entailed interaction with the patrons. She couldn’t fathom how T’Pring could possibly justify her behavior logically.

So, she confronted her. She didn’t mean to, but she had spent the night talking up some guy who was supposed to be some high-ranking person in the information broker’s circles, but as it turned out the guy was absolutely useless. She spent the night drinking cheap cocktails that weren’t even enough for a buzz, her head hurt instead. Nyota was tired and frustrated so when she got back to the ship to find T’Pring in the backroom meditating she lost it a little.

“You need to get your head out of your ass and help me!” she watched with satisfaction as T’Pring was startled out of her meditation at her aggressive address.

She didn’t say anything, just stared at Nyota with those innocent doe eyes, like she couldn’t understand a single word she was saying.

“You’re just gonna ignore me, huh? That’s your play here?” Nyota was almost shouting now, her amusement completely evaporated and started slowly advancing on the other woman who reluctantly stood.

“You are clearly inebriated. I highly doubt that any conversation at this point would be productive.” She sounded so arrogant Nyota had the sudden urge to punch her.

“You don’t talk to me at all, how am I supposed to know that you’re not just jerking off in here all day while I have to put up with these disgusting idiots?” Nyota was so angry she was shaking “I swear if one more person touches me I will lose it.” She said deflated and sunk to the bed.

T’Pring sat opposite her on her own bed. “You believe that I have been eschewing my responsibilities.” She sounded disappointed. Maybe even hurt, but maybe that was just what Nyota wanted her to sound like. “I didn’t realize you required assistance with the locals, you handled that first night on par with expectations.”

“On par with the expectations…” she murmured, “What are you even saying at this point?” Nyota had her head bowed, face in her hands, confused and frustrated with a great big headache.

“Nyota, I suggest we discuss this at length, but as you require rest, we should do so next morning.” T’Pring said, “Would that be satisfactory?”

Nyota just nodded her head and started stripping off her beer-soaked jeans. T’Pring was gone by the time she has managed to wrangle herself into pajamas. Nyota fell into bed and turned towards the wall to sleep. Just before unconsciousness took her the last thought was that this was the first time that T’Pring called her Nyota.

++++

They did talk. They sat on their separate beds facing each other. Nyota explained that it was hard to be out there alone, that it was one thing to win a brawl and another thing to be there every night amongst the scum of the universe and not resent the whole world for their mere existence. That she could fight her way out of almost anything, but they were there to gather intel, they had to gain others’ confidence and learn their secrets and that was hard to do if she had to keep one eye on the exit at all times. She could barely pay attention to their body language because she had no one to spot her, to offer backup.

“I didn’t realize what your outings entailed; I was under the impression that you simply socialized.” T’Pring sounded chastised in her Vulcan way.

Then it was T’Pring’s turn to tell Nyota about how she’s been trying to hack into the mainframe to find out where the server room was, she has narrowed it down to a few locations, mostly places that were not on the map or ones that had unusually high data traffic. But it would take time, and she preferably needed a place where she could connect to the local network physically, to get around the firewall.

“See, we’re talking! Communicating! We work better when we share.” Nyota enthused. “I think you should come with me to the bar tonight.” she added with a smile, she could just imagine T’Pring in there, all uptight and so clearly Vulcan. “But you must try better at pretending to be V’tosh ka’tur, we really need to avoid any suspicion.”

++++

That night Nyota took T’Pring to the bar that had the most potential marks, it was frequented by the broker’s people, and in the back, she has found a room they probably used for making shady deals. She hasn’t been in there, but it was worth checking out.

They were sitting at the bar, sipping on their respective cocktails, when a woman sidled up to them. She seemed out of place with her expensive-looking dress and air of confidence. For a second Nyota considered that she may be a prostitute, but even then, she seemed to not belong with this crowd. Nyota got ready to flirt, but the woman went for T’Pring instead. Curious.

“Can I get you a drink?” the mysterious woman offered.

“I have a drink.” T’Pring rebuffed immediately, but Nyota jabbed her in the side, hard, so she added, “But I would be amenable to procuring a next one.”

The woman gave her a big smile and signalled the bartender, by the time T’Pring was finished with her first drink the woman had ordered her a new one.

“I haven’t seen you in here before.” It was a statement rather than a question, which knowing T’Pring she wouldn’t bother to answer.

“We arrived about a week ago, but my partner here was not in the party mood, I had to drag her out of the ship kicking and screaming.” Nyota told her laughing.

“Oh, that’s a shame. I bet you would look amazing on the dance floor.” The woman said, her focus entirely on T’Pring. “I could show you how to enjoy life, Vulcan.”

To Nyota’s shock, T’Pring stood and went with the woman to the dance floor. She couldn’t wait to see what a logical dance was like.

Nyota would be disappointed though because what happened was not logical in any way, or Vulcan appropriate for that matter. The woman had T’Pring by the waist, her own hands on the shoulder of the stranger, and then they were dancing, properly. Hips swaying, heads leaned close, fronts touching. It looked intimate, it looked… hot. The heavy beat of the music, the warm crowded air, and the incredible sight the two made on the dancefloor had Nyota’s heart thumping.

Nyota shook herself and with a slightly shaky hand went back to drinking her shitty cocktail instead. But she couldn’t not look, she was so intrigued by what she was seeing that she almost didn’t notice the man coming up to her.

Showtime, she thought, as he took the seat next to her and angled himself close. Too close.

“Hey gorgeous, do you wanna dance?” he asked. Nyota immediately hated him, but she put on a cheery smile and said yes.

They were not far from T’Pring and her dance partner, so Nyota could keep an eye on them. They barely made it to the dance floor and the man was already grabbing her hips and grinding his body against her. It was awful, but she grabbed his shoulders and went along with it.

For a while they just danced, Nyota prodding him with questions about his life, mundane stuff, trying to work him up to the more prying questions, but then his hands started wandering. On her ass, on her breasts, all over. She called it quits the moment she felt his hard penis pressing against her. She hurried back to the bar to get a drink without looking back.

“Don’t run away, baby, we’re just getting started, aren’t we?” he said and Nyota’s blood started boiling.

She waved over the bartender without answering, maybe he’ll take a hint. He didn’t. Time to get him drunk, she ordered four shots and hoped he was a lightweight.

She pretended to take her shots and then looked at the man with a loopy grin. “You must be someone important around these parts, so handsome.” She said. “Are you like a bigshot mercenary leader or something?”

Ha laughed, “I work for the info broker, it pays well.” Finally, an answer she could work with.

“Oh, so you _are_ important. Wow.” She said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. “Will you introduce me? Or is that too forward?” she giggled, going for flirty and dumb, “He’s probably busy, right, dealing with all those secrets and what not?” she hated pretending to be stupid, but these kinds of men loved it and fell for it without fail.

“I could introduce you, sure, but I think she’s busy.” He looked to the dancing people and pointed, “She’s right there, dancing with that Romulan.” Nyota looked around but she couldn’t see them, there was no Romulan anywhere. Then it hit her, he meant T’Pring.

“Oh, she’s such a good dancer.” She said, this time she didn’t need to pretend to be awed. The two were now entirely tied around each other, dancing slowly, sinuously to the beat.

The man stood closer and whispered, “I could show you moves better than that.”

A chill ran down her spine, she needed to lose this man, he was becoming bold and soon he would start pushing. She couldn’t let it get that far, she tried to catch T’Pring’s eyes, but the woman was not paying attention. She had to do something, and quick.

“Wait, that’s not a Romulan. That’s my partner. How dare she do this, right in front of me!” she was shouting and marched up to them. With a strong grip on T’Pring’s shoulder, she turned the woman around and started shouting at a stunned T’Pring about how betrayed she felt that T’Pring would do this to her so publicly.

“How dare you cheat on me like this, I’ve given up my entire life for you, and this is what I get in return?” people were starting to stare, Nyota has just burned the last of her bridges, by the next day everyone would know about their supposed relationship. No more flirting, no more intel. At least the man was so shocked he disappeared into the crowd.

Nyota marched them outside and back to the ship, T’Pring was so shocked she didn’t even put up a fight and she was dragged along by a firm hand on her wrist. Once the door closed behind them Nyota let go of her, let out a sigh and sank to the floor. She fucked up.

“Please explain what has just transpired.” T’Pring looked truly put out. Maybe her little dance with the information broker was really going well, Nyota looked away.

“I panicked. I’m sorry I dragged you away from your partner, you clearly hit it off and I ruined it for you, I apologize.”

“I was merely trying to take your advice about being V’tosh ka’tur. The woman I was dancing with was more interested in our business than myself.”

“Did you know that she is the information broker?” Nyota asked.

“I surmised as much from my interaction with her, yes.”

“Did you find out anything new?” Nyota was hopeful, if they could wrap this up soon that would be best.

“No, but I did tell her about our data packets, she seemed interested.”

“Good, that’s good.” Suddenly Nyota felt tired, she just wanted to fall asleep right there on the ground. She slowly stood and went to retire for the night.

As she lay in bed all she could think about was how T’Pring looked dancing with that woman and her last thought was that she wished it was with her.

++++++

The next day they went back to the same bar again. It was clearly the information broker’s favorite as she was there again, hidden in a private booth in the black, all shadowy and mysterious and gorgeous in her tight dress with her strong arms and… Nyota hated her. But they needed to get close to that arrogant, shady, ugh. Focus! Pulling T’Pring a little closer Nyota put a hand on the small of her back and led her towards the booth.

Unpleasantness was curling in her gut and T’Pring’s heat was burning her up from the inside. Nyota had no idea what was going on. The moment they walked in T’Pring spotted the broker in the back and they were waved over instantly. She just needed to get close to the serpent, maybe have her take them to the back room so T’Pring could do her thing, they could get this whole business over with and behind them and Nyota could go back to ignoring her feelings for T’Pring. She could have a whole ship to avoid her.

The broker invited them to join her and they climbed into the booth, T’Pring sitting next to the criminal mastermind and Nyota on T’Pring’s other side.

“I’m glad you came back. I really enjoyed the show you put on yesterday! So much drama!” the broker started.

“What do you mean? What show?” Nyota said affronted.

“It’s fine, darling don’t sweat it. I see through your little façade.” The woman said with a low purr in her voice.

Nyota was starting to get worried, have they been exposed? Did they blow their cover? Did _she_ blow their cover? If it was Nyota’s fault that this whole mission is a bust she would-

“Don’t look so scared, I’m not gonna hurt you.” She said with a chuckle. “I’m flattered actually, people usually don’t put so much effort into trying to meet me!” she was clearly amused.

“I’ve been watching you since you’ve arrived. Two beautiful young women like that don’t go unnoticed around here. And that brawl you started! Hah! Very nice.” she waved over a waiter and ordered them drinks, then continued “So, I heard you are selling information packets. I’m a little hurt that you would be so blatant about it, but I can forgive such rudeness when the packaging is so nice.” To punctuate her point, she slid a hand under the table and (Nyota can only assume) she put it on T’Pring’s knee, which had her stiffening and throwing a look towards Nyota.

Of course, the woman picked up on it immediately “Sorry, I thought your relationship was part of the act too, I didn’t realize it was serious.” She backed off immediately, and both T’Pring and Nyota relaxed a little. “If you ever feel like you’re getting bored, you know where to find me though!” and with that, she changed the subject.

Their drinks came and with cold cocktails complete with little umbrellas they started negotiating a business setup. Nyota and T’Pring would bring in their data packets, and Liara (as they found out that was her name) had first dibs. Anything she didn’t want they could sell themselves. It turned out to be a pretty great deal, very lucrative. For a second Nyota imagined what it would be like to do this for real, but it only took her a second to catch up with her morals.

It’s fine to pretend for a while to be lawless and corrupt, but she liked herself for who she was, she wouldn’t want to compromise herself this way. And T’Pring would probably not stick around, so really what’s the point.

With the negotiations over Nyota expected to be not so subtly excused from the table, but it seemed that Liara was actually enjoying their company. Mostly she spent the night relating her exploits and boasting about her success. It was good, they were gaining her trust, and they didn’t have to spin wild tales to keep her attention, so Nyota spent the time observing her. She was confident and strong-willed, her body language spoke of the same, which was rare. People often don’t believe their own worth, and only pretend at confidence.

Then her attention drifted to T’Pring, in the low light her features were soft, and her eyes seemed almost black. As she was answering something Liara asked a little strand of hair from behind her ear escaped and fell forward. Without thinking, Nyota reached out to tuck it back behind in.

At the last second, she realized that she wasn’t supposed to be touching T’Pring, so she redirected her hand and instead grabbed her drink. T’Pring didn’t see her, but Liara did.

“I have a room in the back, it’s very quiet. And private.” Liara offered with a significant look at Nyota. She didn’t know what to do. If she pretended to not understand, she could keep T’Pring from learning about her little misstep, save herself the embarrassment, but they wouldn’t get in the room. And they needed to get into that back room. In the end, there really wasn’t an option.

“That sounds lovely!” Nyota said. “We would love to check it out, wouldn’t we T’Dani?” she added with a smile at T’Pring.

“Yes, that would be most convenient.” nodded T’Pring, her clear confusion about the exchange easily hidden behind her Vulcan mask.

They were led to the back, into the room that Nyota saw before, and left alone. There was a bed she didn’t see before, which made clear just what kind of negotiations went on in there. But there was a computer terminal as well, so it worked out in their favor.

T’Pring took out her pocket computer and Nyota connected it to the network in the room. Then she stepped back and watched as T’Pring’s fingers flew over the keys, the way she worked with quiet concentration. Nyota never had the chance before to just observe her work, it was beautiful. T’Pring worked fast without making a single mistake, then she stood back to let the program run.

“It’s a fascinating décor choice to put a bed in a negotiation r-“ T’Pring cut herself off in the middle of the sentence, then with a little “oh” she turned back to the computer and tried to seem busy. It was endearing to watch as the realization settled in a small blush spread on her beautiful face.

Her reaction made Nyota realize though that there was a reason that the room was offered to them, Liara thought they were in there because they couldn’t wait to go back to their ship to get their hands on each other. They had to make it at least look like they did the dirty so Nyota suggested: “We should mess up our hair a little or something.”.

At T’Pring’s look she added, “You know, to keep up appearances, there is an obvious reason this room was so generously offered to us…” she finished, gesturing to the bed.

“How do you suggest we do that?” T’Pring asked without looking up from the console.

The thought of getting T’Pring all messed up shorted out Nyota’s brain “Uhm.” Nothing, there was nothing, her brain has completely abandoned the conversation.

“I guess just run your fingers through your hair a little” she said finally and proceeded to demonstrate by pulling her hair out of her ponytail and running her hands through it. Then she watched as T’Pring did the same, as her beautiful long fingers disappeared in her long, shiny hair. The way she looked when she was done had Nyota’s breathless. She’s seen her in the mornings, but she always had her hair in a braid. Seeing T’Pring, pristine, uptight T’Pring so disheveled was something out of Nyota’s most secret fantasies. And wow, where is all this coming from… Concentrate!

“Maybe bite your lips?” she suggested as she demonstrated. She couldn’t look away as T’Pring sucked her lips in one after the other, the way they came away glistening of saliva and slightly greener than before, had Nyota holding her breath.

With a little gulp, Nyota said “Good.” And turned back to the console as heat spread through her and her cheeks were taken over by a deep blush. She couldn’t handle looking at T’Pring in this state, it had her head spinning, her knees weak. She’s tried so hard to push these feelings down, it was clear that T’Pring was not interested, not even interested in friendship, or whatever the Vulcan equivalent of it was. It hurt a little, the rejection of it, the unreciprocated feelings, but Nyota has locked these feelings away, and the middle of a covert operation was really not the place to have them surface.

Luckily the console pinged at that moment to inform them that the network logs and map were downloaded. Nyota disconnected T’Pring’s instrument, handed it to her and put everything back as it was.

“We should head back to the ship.” T’Pring offered as she hid the small computer under her robes.

“Sure, let’s go bid our farewell to Liara. Come on!” they left the room and went back to Liara’s table.

“Well that was quick!” the broker said with a strange smile, perhaps suspicious.

“Yeah, turns out shady bar backrooms are a bit of a turn-off for me.” Nyota said with a giggle and looked at T’Pring for a moment. “We’re heading back to our ship. Just wanted to say thanks and wish you a good night.”

“I get it.” Liara said with a knowing look. “Sometimes you just want your own soft bed to fuck on!” she offered jokingly. T’Pring stiffened next to Nyota, but Liara didn’t notice.

Nyota gently took T’Pring’s arm and with a wave and a smile back at Liara guided her out of the bar.

Back on the ship T’Pring immediately started working on the data they gathered, so Nyota, with nothing better to do went to bed.

She tossed and turned for a long time, before she realized she could hear T’Pring’s faint sounds as she worked, strangely this put Nyota’s mind at ease, and she fell asleep.

\-----

Nyota was awakened in the middle of the night with a hand on her shoulder. For a second as she didn’t know where she was, she got ready to fight, her hands raised in fists she finally looked up at T’Pring giving her a curious expression. But in an instant the look was gone and Nyota lowered her hands quickly.

“What’s up?” she asked around a yawn.

“I found the server room.” Informed T’Pring.

Nyota was out of bed and pulling her boots on in seconds, alert and ready. They gathered around the console to look at the location on their map. There were two possible routes, one was a lot longer, but the short route had a stretch that they didn’t know yet, so it was just logical to take the way that they knew.

“We should go early in the morning, that’s when there is the least foot traffic. It’s a pretty small time-window but we should be able to make it in and out unnoticed.” Nyota said and T’Pring agreed.

Nyota spent the rest of the night preparing, getting their gear together, making sure that everything worked and were in their place. She was anxious, but they were well prepared, T’Pring was an amazing programmer, and Nyota knew the ins-and-outs of nearly any computer hardware. Everything would be fine.

Around 4:00 am station time they left. The walk to their target took about 15 minutes, they went through a warehouse, corridors with apartments, and finally arrived at the corridor that housed the server room nestled between offices. There was a guard, so they waited out of sight. It took only ten minutes before the guard started down the corridor in the opposite direction, they took this chance to sneak up to the room. The locking system only took 3 seconds for T’Pring to figure out and within seconds they were standing in the room, the door sliding shut behind them.

They got to work, Nyota took apart the panels and connected their own computer to the network. Now it was up to T’Pring. Nyota watched her fingers dance on the keyboard, she worked fast and with meticulous precision, it was enticing to see her like this. Immersed and focused, she looked intense and severe, and so beautiful.

When T’Pring was finished, she handed the data stick to Nyota. Nyota then disconnected the computer and screwed the panels back on. With a last look around to make sure that everything was the same as when they entered they gathered their gear.

They were at the door, ready to leave when Nyota heard movement outside, she reached out and grabbed T’Pring’s wrist to stop her from opening the door. They stood there a little while until Nyota heard the guard move away again and gave T’Pring the go-ahead to open the door. They quickly left the room and started down the corridor back towards their ship.

The guard however turned and saw them as they turned the corner, Nyota heard the footsteps following them, she pulled T’Pring into an alcove and listened as the guard got closer. She needed to do something, the footsteps were coming ever closer, and she panicked.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered to T’Pring before rising on her toes and kissing her on the lips. T’Pring’s lips opened a bit, perhaps to ask something or out of shock, which gave Nyota the perfect opportunity to slide their lips together better. She put her hands on either side of T’Pring’s face so she wouldn’t move away and listened for the footsteps desperately hoping their ploy would work.

Suddenly there were hands on her hips, pulling her closer, their bodies pushing up against each other. Nyota was lost, she gave in and kissed the woman properly. T’Pring clearly didn’t know how to reciprocate, her movements clumsy and unpracticed, but it didn’t matter, the kiss turned passionate and deep in no time.

By the time there was the sound of a throat being cleared loudly Nyota had a thigh between T’Pring’s, and T’Pring was kissing her like her life depended on it. Reluctantly Nyota pulled away and looked at the guard.

“Perhaps you should take this to your rooms, ladies.” The guard laughed.

She felt T’Pring’s hands slip from her waist and step back. Nyota was so relieved that their ruse worked, she took T’Pring’s hand without thinking and lead her down the corridor laughing. She didn’t get a chance to panic about the whole situation before they reached the warehouse.

They were almost back to their ship when things went south. A shot whipped by Nyota’s head, and they took off at a run, ducking behind the first thing they could find. Taking their phasers Nyota started shooting back, while T’Pring edged to the other side of the crate they hid behind to take a better look at what they were dealing with.

“There are 10 assailants, 3 are moving to the right to circle back behind us. The rest are up ahead.” She reported. “I’ll take the 3 moving in on us, you should keep this position.” With that T’Pring slipped away.

Nyota couldn’t even protest, she was alone, holding the position behind the crate. She really hoped T’Pring knew what she was doing.

Minutes went by with shots zipping through the air in every direction, Nyota has taken out 5 of the 7, but she was sure that sooner or later backup would arrive, or her luck would run out. She needed to move.

Ducking back behind the crate she looked around for any sign of T’Pring, she spotted her a couple of meters away, struggling with a large burly man on the ground. Clearly her superior strength was not so superior now as she was pinned to the ground, with the man punching her in the face. Nyota saw red, she aimed her phaser and shot the man in the chest, watched as he went limp and T’Pring rolled him off.

Soon they were both back behind the crate, with two shooters remaining, they needed to leave. They couldn’t risk staying anymore.

“On three we run.” Nyota said and without waiting for an answer started counting down on her fingers, holding T’Pring’s gaze.

When the last finger came down, she took off towards the ship, T’Pring in tow. As they ran across the empty yard shots pierced through the air. T’Pring was already jumping through the door to their ship when Nyota got hit. She stumbled but made it through the door. T’Pring hit the button to close it and was briskly walking to the bridge as Nyota gathered herself.

She took stock of her body, little achy, and her arm was definitely injured but it wasn’t bad, she went to the back of the ship, took her jacket off and found some bandages to put on the wound. Then she went to the bridge and buckled in. T’Pring has already cleared the station and they were ready to go to warp. Nyota opened a subspace channel and hailed the Enterprise.

They had two hours until they would rendezvous with Enterprise, so Nyota wanted to go back to their sleeping cots and start packing. She wanted to get everything ready before they arrived.

“You were shot.” T’Pring said, she sounded angry.

“It’s nothing. Leonard will fix it in no time.” Nyota answered distracted, without looking up from her console.

T’Pring, of course, wouldn’t let it be, she got the medkit laid out in front of Nyota’s seat as she turned to face her and started looking for the dermal regenerator unit. She distinctly gave the air of someone who is pissed off, but Vulcans don’t get pissed off.

“Leave it. I’m fine.” Nyota tried to go around her to the back to finish packing, but with a hand on her shoulder, T’Pring pushed her back down in the chair and continued going through the kit. Nyota knew she wouldn’t find it there; the regenerator was in the back where she left it after the first night when she got beat up. T’Pring was getting agitated, instead of her methodical search, she started pushing things around and throwing things everywhere. It was the height of entertainment to Nyota until she realized that T’Pring’s hands were shaking.

“T’Pring” Nyota tried to call her name to get her attention, but it was as if she couldn’t hear her.

“Come on, T’Pring! It’s okay, really.” But T’Pring wouldn’t listen, just kept looking through the kit more and more frantically. So Nyota did the only thing she could think of. Slipping off the chair she knelt in front of T’Pring and took her shaking hands in hers.

“T’Pring look at me!” Nyota instructed. The emotional display was disconcerting, she had no idea what to do with a Vulcan in distress, so she tried to go with what she would do if T’Pring was human having a panic attack.

When finally, the other woman did look at her the look in her eyes crushed her. Clearly something that Nyota didn’t understand was going through her mind. With gentle hands still holding T’Pring’s hands, she asked, “Can you tell me what’s going on?”

As if shocked T’Pring pulled her hands back as if burned, and quickly jumped to her feet, running to the back of the ship. Nyota was lost. Should she follow her? Press more? Something was clearly weighing on T’Pring, but she hesitated, she didn’t want to scare her or humiliate her. Vulcans don’t show emotion like that. Warring with her guilt she finally decided to leave it.

To occupy her mind Nyota started quietly picking up the medical equipment from the floor, slowly, gently putting everything back in the bag.

She was just finishing up and zipping the bag when T’Pring came back.

“Please sit.” She ordered Nyota in an even tone. No intonation, no emotion. Great, so she’s shutting down. Nyota was confused but did as told. T’Pring had found the regenerator, she turned it on and gently used it to close up Nyota’s wound. When she was done, she left without a word, leaving a stunned Nyota behind.

Not knowing what to do Nyota followed her to the back and started packing without looking at the other woman. From the corner of her eyes she watched T’Pring leave.

Everything was a mess. Did T’Pring really dislike her so much, was she really so angry that she couldn’t even bear to be in a room with her? To distract herself Nyota methodically packed up everything she had, folding and organizing and refolding and reorganizing for the rest of the trip back to the Enterprise.


	2. But I like it a lot!

When they arrived, Nyota was immediately whisked away to sickbay together with T’Pring who had a huge bruise blooming on her cheek. Once in there, they were ushered in different directions and Nyota didn’t see the other woman for the rest of the day.

Nyota got patched up, checked out, and finally released to her quarters for mandatory 24-hour leave.

It took a while to settle back into her room, to shed the clothes and the persona she wore for almost 3 weeks, to wash away the remaining grime from their stay. It took even longer to get back in the star fleet officer mindset, to stop waiting for someone to jump her every time she turned a corner (that part took weeks, actually).

The next day they got confirmation that the smuggling ring has been dismantled, the perpetrators were in federation custody. They even found some of the missing Vulcans, unfortunately not all of them were found immediately, and it will take a long time to get them all back, but at least Nyota could rest assured that their work was not in vain. It was a comforting thought that they could contribute so meaningfully. It made the whole messy situation with T’Pring just a little bit worth it.

After her first shift back on duty Nyota was exhausted, she took her dinner in the mess hall alone, then went back to her empty room.

The strangest thing was that she got used to sharing a space with someone. It was comforting to listen to someone else putter around, hear them breathe, to know that someone was there. Without T’Pring it was just so quiet.

It took some days but Nyota readjusted, she got used to everything again, the familiar silence of her room, the kindness of crewmates, the monotony of her job. It all became comfortable again.

It took her exactly 6 days to realize that T’Pring was avoiding her. It took so long because they shared few shifts as is, and most of their work had them in different parts of the ship. But at least every other day she would find T’Pring in one of the labs she wanted to use, or see her in the mess hall, or run into her on the corridor.

Looking back T’Pring was always just there, everywhere somehow. And now she wasn’t.

Nyota was devastated, clearly T’Pring hated her now and even that tentative acquaintance they had was ruined. She understood, after all, she has violated T’Pring and her boundaries with that kiss, and even before they went on that mission, she was probably pushing it with her persistence.

She tried to talk to Jim about it, but the insufferable little man just laughed and told her to get her head out of her ass. As if that was in any way the problem here.

Maybe Spock could help her, maybe he could help her understand T’Pring’s side of this whole mess, so Nyota could apologize properly and maybe start to repair their relationship. She found him in one of the labs after shift. He looked up from some elaborate looking equation when she entered.

“Hey! Do you have a second?” she asked walking closer.

“Nyota! Of course, have a seat.” He said and turned back to his work as Nyota took the chair next to him.

“I just wanted to talk to you about T’Pring. I think she’s been avoiding me; I think I offended her somehow… do you know anything about that? Has she talked to you?” she asked, no use in beating around the bush with Spock.

“You know Vulcans are very private.” He said and then somehow went on a tangent about how hard it was when him and Jim first started dating. It was… detailed. And wholly unhelpful. Clearly Spock was in a mood.

By the time she finally excused herself he’s talked her through their entire relationship somehow, from courtship to the current struggles and although they were close friends, she never wanted to hear about their life in such _intimate_ detail ever again.

Nyota was still just as clueless about this whole thing with T’Pring, and she’s run out of people to ask. Great.

She decided the best course of action was to try to forget about it. Work through the hurt of T’Pring avoiding her and bury herself in work. She started a new project and picked up some old translations she never got around to finishing, and just generally took any and every opportunity to distract herself from this misery.

Which is how she ended up in one of the gyms, sparring with Jim. Both took it a little too seriously and in half an hour she was sweaty and flushed, shaking from the adrenaline rush. She was just about to tip Kirk over and win the round when T’Pring entered the gym. Nyota watched her go straight to the running machines, and in her distraction, Jim knocked her over and had her pinned by twisting her hand behind her back.

This had her crying out in pain and frustration, Jim let up and she got to her feet. This was the first time she’s even seen T’Pring, the other has been doing such a thorough job of avoiding her. It felt like it was her only chance to talk to her. So, she told Jim that she’s done for today and went over to T’Pring.

T’Pring was just getting ready to start her workout, stretching a little before hopping on the machine.

“Hey! Can we talk?” Nyota asked bluntly when she was close enough.

T’Pring looked at her with a little shock that she quickly concealed, clearly, she hasn’t realized Nyota was in here.

“Lieutenant Uhura, I was just about to start my workout, maybe we could talk after?” she said without a flicker of emotion in her face.

Dejected Nyota murmured a quiet “Sure.” And walked away.

So that’s it. T’Pring clearly wanted nothing to do with her. Okay. It’s a big ship, it will not be hard to avoid her. During her shower Nyota planned how to maximize her success in avoiding the other woman.

Their work together was done, they lived on different decks, she could find a new favorite lab and a new gym. Nyota also found a new mess hall and a new rec room, just to be sure.

T’Pring tried to talk to her exactly twice. The first time two days after their run-in at the gym, she found Nyota in her new preferred lab, but Nyota was in the middle of something so she dismissed her with a distracted “I need to work.”

The second, and last time, T’Pring came to her room. Nyota was still hurt, and angry from the other’s rejection, so when she got back to her quarters after a long and exhausting shift the last thing she wanted was another rejection and confrontation. It was probably childish but when she spotted T’Pring at her door she turned on her heel and walked away.

T’Pring probably saw her, because she didn’t try to find her again. It was awful, but it was exactly what Nyota needed to get over the whole thing.

Days went by and finally, Nyota relaxed, she forgave herself for ruining their relationship and resigned herself to the fact that their relationship was over. So, she thought there would be no harm in going back to her old gym, and her old lab, and her old habits.

+++++

Weeks later they were orbiting around a planet on the brink of economic collapse, that could potentially push them into planetwide war, while also in negotiations for entry to the federation. It was a bit of a mess, very exhausting because their language was nothing like Nyota has ever come across, and to top it all the universal translator was on the fritz after some ion storm caught the Enterprise unprepared.

So Nyota was in her favorite lab pouring over the scraps of data they had available from the planet, while also trying to fix the damn translator. She was on her third shift in a row with no sleep when T’Pring waltzed in without a word and went straight to the back. Nyota almost didn’t notice her because she was so overwhelmed with work, but there also doesn’t exist a universe or situation where Nyota would not notice T’Pring entering a room.

It was a bit of a shock, Nyota hasn’t even seen the other woman for over a week even with going back to her old haunts. Nyota was tired though, and she had so much more work ahead that emotionalism really needed to take a backseat. She went back to work.

She was just about to finish rebuilding a circuit, and test run the translator for the first time in three days, when she heard shouting from the back. Curiosity got the best of her and went to check it out.

Lieutenant Cowen was next to the computer and going on about some equation with angry gestures at the screen, while T’Pring stood to the side and responded in cool even sentences.

“What’s going on? I’m trying to work out there…” Nyota said, frustration coloring her voice.

“Lieutenant Pointy here thinks she knows everything better than us mere mortals.” Spat Cowen angrily.

“First, never use derogatory language like that again in my presence or I will break your face. Second, instead of raising your voice why don’t you act like a professional and tell me what the problem is.” Nyota said firmly.

When she was tired Nyota had zero tolerance for idiocy. If someone wanted to reprimand her, she’ll just ask them how they would react to incompetent officers disrupting their work with unprofessional behavior after being awake for 30 hours and then probably go off on a tangent about racism and xenophobia in the federation and star fleet.

After a bit of huffing, Cowen shared the problem and the three of them sat down to figure it out. In the end, both of them were right because they were talking about different things altogether. With that settled Nyota went back to her own job.

Some hours later she was just about to give up on the translator and just request to do the job herself in person when someone put a cup of coffee in front of her. She looked up from the circuit board and to her shock, it was T’Pring with a slight expression of warmth she clearly tried and failed to conceal. Nyota didn’t mention that she was slipping, after all, they all have been working tirelessly for days with no real rest.

“Do you require assistance?” T’Pring asked and Nyota could have sworn she sounded nervous.

“I have to rewire two more boards and check the code over to see if there is any damage. If you have time to spare, I could use some help.” Nyota said with a little shrug. It was maybe overly polite and Nyota was just beginning to beat herself up about it, but T’Pring just nodded, pulled up a chair and got to work.

They worked quietly for a few more hours until exhaustion and the constant pain of singing her fingers over and over had Nyota standing with a sigh.

“I probably need to get some sleep; I’m making too many mistakes.” She said stretching her back.

They parted ways quietly, and Nyota thought that was the end of it.

After a few fitful hours of sleep, Nyota was back in the lab. She was exhausted, her hands hurt, her back was aching. The only saving grace of the whole day, the whole situation really, was that T’Pring was back. They again worked for hours, sitting quietly next to each other in comfortable silence.

In the end, it took another two shifts to finish all the rewiring and have the Universal Translator operational again.

Nyota was ecstatic. She was just demonstrating her victory dance (a result of sleep-deprivation and too much replicated coffee) to her when T’Pring was called away.

Next day Nyota was on the bridge, monitoring the planet, doing some translations in the downtime, taking the landing party check-ins.

She was just about to leave for the day when a distress call from the landing team came in. Requesting immediate emergency beam-out, medical to stand by in the transporter room, have Vulcan blood stocks ready.

She notified the transporter room, had a medical team rushed there and M’Benga called before it hit her. Vulcan blood. A Vulcan was injured. She looked up and saw Spock at his station. She was out of her seat in an instant and running for the turbo lift without a care for anything else.

Nyota rushed to the transporter room, but the landing party has already been taken to medical. She ran down the corridor and entered sickbay in a near panic. It was chaos in there, but within a few seconds, she saw T’Pring on a stretcher in the back. Before she could go to her there was a nurse in her way, firmly telling her to leave. When she didn’t move, she was firmly but kindly pushed to the door and escorted from the room, to wait outside.

She was helpless and scared, so Nyota went back to her lab and started taking apart the universal translator. In a moment of weakness, she commed Jim to ask about the landing party, but there was no official report yet. Instead of examining why she was so affected, she went back to work.

After several more hours with no news, Nyota decided that this was helping no one and left for the mess for a quick bite before retiring for the night. When she was no longer hungry, she left for her quarters, and if she took the longer route, that took her by sickbay, no one had to know.

She wanted to go in but knew that she had no business there, so she left.

When she got to her quarters though T’Pring was there, in front of her door. Nyota froze.

It was one thing to go mad not knowing how T’Pring was, to spend an entire shift worried out of her mind for the other woman, but to examine _why_ was another deal. With T’Pring outside her door, she had no choice but to face the music (and her fears).

“Hey!” she called to T’Pring as she walked up.

“Hello, Nyota.” The other said evenly.

They stood there for a second, just looking at each other, waiting for someone to make the first step.

“Would you like to come in?” Nyota offered at last, hesitant.

T’Pring look around as if in a daze and nodded before following Nyota inside. She looked out of sorts and uncomfortable so Nyota offered her a seat of the little couch in her living area. She went to get them some tea, less out of politeness than to have something to putter with while she calmed her frayed nerves.

Nyota went to join T’Pring on the couch, handing her a cup of Vulcan spice tea. T’Pring took it with unreadable eyes full of emotion. At the first sip she let a small sigh escape her and visibly relaxed, before finally looking up to meet Nyota’s gaze.

“Nurse Chapel told me you came by the sickbay while the landing party was being treated.” T’Pring said, her gaze searching.

Nyota couldn’t look at her any longer without all the fear and pain resurfacing from all those hours of waiting. Looking down she said, “I took your distress call, I wanted to see how everyone was doing.” She felt guilty for the omission that she was really only there for T’Pring, and for the fact that it never occurred to her until this very moment that others in the landing party may have been hurt as well.

“Commander Spock mentioned that you left your station early, without waiting for your replacement.” Nyota knew how telling that was. They both knew how professional Nyota was and how well she could keep a level head in even the worth situations.

Knowing that T’Pring knew this as well, have seen it firsthand, there really was no choice but to be honest.

“I was worried.” Nyota whispered, finally meeting T’Pring’s eyes. She didn’t have to say, ‘about you’, they both knew exactly what she meant, and it hang between them unsaid, crowding them with tension.

There was no going back, so Nyota put on a brave face and soldiered on. “I wanted to apologize.” She said and when T’Pring clearly had no idea what she meant she continued. “When we were on that mission, on space station 95… I crossed some boundaries. I shouldn’t have kissed you, and I hope you can forgive me for that. And I understand that even before that I was crossing some cultural lines with my pushiness, I was desperate to have your attention, get to know you. I understand that you don’t even want to be friends with me, and I’ll keep my distance. I’ll leave you alone. I’m really sorry.” Nyota finished her rambling with shame burning her face.

Slowly T’Pring put down her cup carefully on the side table, precisely arranging the whole affair before she turned back to Nyota. Her eyes were intense and burning Nyota up from the inside. T’Pring pinned had her pinned to the spot.

“You do not get to share the depth of your feelings for me and then withdraw from me.” T’Pring sounded almost choked. It was frightening to be at the receiving end of that burning anger. Before Nyota could panic about T’Pring hating her, she continued. “I have longed for you and I have kept myself from acting on these desires since we met. You cannot tell me that my ardor is reciprocated and then take it away from me within the same sentence.”

T’Pring gently took the cup of tea from Nyota’s shaking hands and placed it next to her own cup.

She then reached out and ever so softly caressed Nyota’s hand that sat limply between them, running fingers softly over the skin of her inner wrist before travelling down to entwine their fingers. They both kept staring at their hands and only looked back up at one another when their hands were held securely together between them.

The emotion Nyota could see in T’Pring’s eyes sent a shiver down her spine. She has never seen so much passion and raw need in anyone before.

“Does this mean you will finally go on a date with me?” Nyota asked with a somewhat teary smile, trying to ease some of the tension in the room.

“I believe that is the customary next step, yes.” T’Pring replied with amusement shining in her deep brown eyes. “However, I believe you have taken me to a bar once, as well as dancing. I recall having coffee as well. Perhaps you could join me for dinner for our third date?” she said, mischief clearly writ on her features.

“I could replicate us something. Or we could just skip to dessert…” Nyota said, joining in on the joke, sharing in the mirth.

T’Pring stood, pulling Nyota up along with her before crowding into her space and in a low voice saying, “I believe dessert for dinner is a decadence we can allow ourselves this once.” Then she leaned in for a kiss.

It was everything Nyota had ever wanted. The slow embrace they slipped into as their lips moved together, the soft sighs and low moans that became louder and more frequent as they moved towards the bedroom, and the raw need Nyota saw in T’Pring’s eyes when they finally parted as they pulled their clothes off, will forever be burned into Nyota’s mind. And as they fell into bed in a tangle of limbs, she couldn’t be happier about it.

They still had a lot to talk about and figure out, but that could wait. It was just the beginning and they had all the time in the world to get everything right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Comments and kudos are love <3

**Author's Note:**

> Mentions of kidnapping, human trafficking, mild injuries (non-graphic), mentions of dub-con touching, groping (the girl goes to bar experience).  
> V’tosh ka’tur – Vulcan person without logic, a faction of Vulcans who rejected the teachings of Surak and embrace emotion  
> Dif-tor heh smusma – Live long and prosper. Vulcan greeting  
> Sochya eh dif – Peace and long life. Reply to the previous one  
> Ot-lan – lieutenant  
> Ta’al – Vulcan slute  
> And yes those are references to Mass Effect and Terminator because I'm like that :,)  
> Comments and Kudos feed the writer's soul!


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